The present invention relates generally to methods and procedures utilized to monitor use of rental items and identify damage to the rental items by customers, and to methods to prevent theft of the rental items, and, more particularly, to a self service system and procedure, incorporating bi-directional communications, to automatically monitor use of and damage to individually identifiable rental items including bicycles and other recreational articles, and correlate such use or damage to a particular customer. And further, where the self-service system and procedure is able to secure the rental items from theft, yet is convenient to use.
Operation of a service for the rental of recreational articles such as bicycles, sailboats and powered watercraft is labor intensive often limiting the rental activities to the hours of operation of the rental service when an employee is able to monitor the rental articles and attend to the process of renting articles and receiving return of the rental articles.
In a typical operation for rental of recreational articles, the unrented rental articles are secured by mechanical locks, are kept within the rental shop, or otherwise require an attendant to constantly watch the articles during hours of operation when the articles are not secured, to prevent theft. An attendant is further required to unlock or allow access to the rental articles for customers, calculate and collect fees for the rental of the recreational articles, and to inspect the rental articles for damage sustained during the period of rental. Additionally, an attendant is necessary to record the identity of the customer renting a particular rental article and to receive credit or debit card information, cash, or other like deposit, for use in the event the rental article is damaged or not returned by the customer. Further, a typical operation for rental of recreational articles does not lend itself to the convenience of customers, as an attendant is required to process rentals and returns thereby limiting customers"" ability to rent articles to the hours such operation is open, and since such operations are often limited to a single location where articles are rented and returned, customers are not able to rent an articles at one location and return it at another location for customer convenience or commuting purposes.
Attempts have been made to automate the rental and security of bicycles and other recreational articles. Two examples of attempts to automate the rental and security of rental bicycles are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,351 to Rey, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,407 to Squire et al. In both the Rey and Squire devices, an identifier is attached to the rental bicycle which is read by the rental and security system to identify the rental bicycle. In the Squire et al. device a bar code is attached in some fashion to the bicycle and is read by a bar code reader upon return of the bicycle; in the Rey device an integrated circuit is attached in some fashion to the bicycle and is read by the system upon return of the bicycle. Although the Rey device also teaches the use of a further portable key with identification information that can be read, both the Rey and Squire devices suffer from the one way communication method through which the bicycle identification information is read.
Under less than ideal conditions, one way communication methods cannot insure that the data intended to be read is in fact properly read; communication noise can affect various means of data communication including direct electrical contact, optical transmission and radio frequency transmission. Where rental articles such as bicycles, may be returned in a dirty condition or within less than ideal environmental conditions, communication noise encountered with one way communication methods of the bicycle identification information becomes a significantly limiting factor with unattended bicycle rental and security systems. The occurrence of communication noise in direct electrical, radio frequency, and optical communications, is well known. Where one way communications methods are employed, data verification through handshaking and error correction schemes cannot be utilized to combat such communication noise, and failure of correct data communication results.
Although certainly not the only instance, one readily appreciated example of communication failure encountered in a one way communication method involves the bar code scanners that are frequently employed in grocery stores; where the bar code is frosted, dirty or bent, the scanner does not recognize that the item is present and the scan must be attempted repeatedly by an operator until the item is recognized.
Accordingly, it is the object of the present invention to provide an improved system to facilitate the rental of bicycles and other recreational articles in which, the rental articles can be individually recognized by an automated system utilizing a bi-directional communications method that employs data verification through handshaking and error correction, the rental articles are secured from theft, yet can be rented regardless of whether an attendant is present, possible damage to the rental articles can be identified and associated to an identifiable customer, and a number of separate automated locations are provided which are in communication with one another so that rental and return need not occur at the same location.
The objects of the present invention are accomplished by the bicycle rental and security system which comprises: a number of rental articles which have individual article identification means and mechanical shock sensors incorporated within a semiconductor circuit which is programmed with information which uniquely identifies the rental article to which it is attached; one or more kiosks containing security racks, with alarm sensors, to releasably secure the rental items from theft and tampering; a control center at each kiosk, which can communicate, in a bi-directional fashion with the semi conductor circuit of the individual article identification means and shock sensors of each rental article secured to the security rack, and can perceive the alarm sensors of the security rack, and can provide a signal to the security rack to selectably release and secure individual rental items; and a system processor to receive information from and send information to the one or more control centers.
The control center has means for input of customer and payment information for a customer seeking to rent a particular rental article. The control center""s means for input of customer and payment information may be accomplished through use of a keypad or touch screen utilizing individual codes or by insertion of a card encoded with customer and payment information, such as a credit or debit card or pre-paid rental card, into a card reader incorporated into the control center.
The system controller receives information from the control centers, indicating which rental articles are unrented and in bi-directional communication with the control center, which rental articles are being rented and removed from the security rack and by what customers, and indicating which rental articles are being returned and secured to the security racks and whether a returned rental articles shock sensor indicates an impact during the rental period. The system controller maintains a permanent record of the rental articles including rental time, return time, shock sensor activation, location and customer history upon a disk drive, EEPROM or similar recording device.
Upon entry of a pass code or insertion of a card into a card reader of a control center, the system controller receives customer and payment information for a customer seeking to rent a particular rental article. A permanent record for each customer is maintained by the system controller which record could indicate, a determined rental credit authorization for the customer, which rental articles are currently in the individuals possession, and a prior rental history for the individual, including times and dates and identifying the particular articles rented, returned and damaged. By evaluating the record for a customer, the system controller directs the control center, either authorizing or denying release of a particular rental article from the security rack and updating the record for the customer upon release of a rental article from the security rack.
In the event that the system controller receives information from a control center that an alarm sensor has been activated, or that there has been an unanticipated loss of bi-directional communication with the semiconductor circuit of a rental item, the system controller would record the time, date, location and rental article information and can be directed to automatically sound an alarm, contact security or contact law enforcement by radio, telephone or other accepted transmission method and relay the recorded information.
In the event that the system controller receives information from a control center that a mechanical shock sensor has been activated on a newly returned rental article the system controller could be directed to automatically contact maintenance personnel to inspect the rental article for damage and to secure the rental article from further rental until it has been inspected.
In addition to securing rental articles from theft, the security rack and control center may be configured to simultaneously allow customer owned articles to be secured from theft by the security racks and alarm sensors of the control center and accept customer and payment information for such service.
As a further option of the invention, the bicycle rental and security system can be configured so that a rental bicycle can be reserved by a customer, from a control center, for rental at a particular kiosk location for a future time to insure that a rental bicycle will be available at that time. In the event of such a reservation, the system controller would direct the control center at the particular kiosk location, not to release a particular rental bicycle, except to the customer with the reservation for a given period of time. Since the system controller can be connected to telephone and internet communications, the reservation process of the bicycle rental and security system could be extended to include reservations made by telephone and internet, where a customer is given an automated menu of rental choices and is given the ability to make selections and provide customer and payment information over the telephone or internet.
In practice of the current invention, an article identification means and mechanical shock sensor are incorporated within a semiconductor circuit which is attached to a rental article, the rental article is in turn secured to a security rack of a kiosk whereby bi-directional communication is established between the control center and the semiconductor circuit, thus indicating the identification of the rental article, the status of the shock sensor and the rental article""s location. At the same time alarm sensors, if present at the location of the rental item on the security rack, are enabled.
The article identification means and mechanical shock sensor are incorporated within a semiconductor circuit which is programmed with information which uniquely identifies the rental article to which it is attached, and programmed with the protocol for bi-directional communication with the control center. When the rental article is placed within the rack, the circuit incorporating the article identification means and mechanical shock sensor establishes bi-directional communication with the control center. The method of bi-directional communication may be through any viable communication method including direct electrical contact, radio frequency, or optical communication. With the bi-directional communication, data verification through handshaking and error correction is utilized. The verification or error checking protocol employed may be of any suitable protocol including redundant talkback and checksum and data.
In the bi-directional protocol of one present embodiment of the invention, upon placement of a rental article within a rack, the control center begins communication with the semi-conductor circuit of the rental article, the semi conductor circuit of the rental article in turn communicates to the control center that it is present, at which time the control center requests the unique article identification information and shock sensor status of the semi conductor circuit of the rental article. When article identification information and shock sensor status is sent to the control center the article identification information and shock sensor status is repeated back to the semi-conductor circuit of the rental article, which may be in encrypted form, for a secondary confirmation. The successful communication confirms the rental article is present, otherwise the control center starts the protocol a new until confirmed communication is established. Further, the error correction routine may slow down transmission speed or change the protocol until successful communication is established.
With the bi-directional communication between the control center and the semi conductor circuit of the rental article, the system controller is able to repeatedly request information and status from the semiconductor circuit of the rental article thereby serving the further function of an active rather than a passive alarm. The communication between the control center and the semi conductor circuit preferably incorporates a changing encryption system to increase security of communications and prevent fraudulent code catching and duplication.
Customers utilize a pass code, credit card, debit card or customer card supplied by the rental operator to input their customer and payment information into the control center. A rental article may be released from a security rack only after customer and payment information is input at a control center, transmitted to the system controller and authorization for release of the rental article is received by the control center from the system controller. In instances where a pass code or customer card are supplied by the rental operator, a customer can be required to provide a security deposit or detailed personal information to insure that rental payments or damages to rental items can be collected. In instances where a credit card or debit card is utilized, the system controller can communicate with financial institutions, for verification of credit or balance information, to authorize release of a rental article and bill rental and damage charges for the rental article directly to the credit or debit card account.
When a rental article is released to a customer, the system controller records the time, date, location, identity of the rental article, along with customer and payment information Similarly, when a rental article is returned, the time, date, location of return, identity of the rental article, and status of the mechanical shock sensor are recorded by the system controller. Through use of the information recorded by the system controller, a customer can be automatically charged for the time period in which the customer used the rental article, which charge could be adjusted to take into account whether the customer returned the article to the same location or commuted to a different location. Additionally, the information recorded can be used to automatically identify possible damage to a rental article, making it unfit for further rental until inspected and serviced, and attributing any damage to a particular customer. And the information recorded can be utilized to automatically indicate the need to move rental articles from one kiosk to another to accommodate customer demand.
Since each rental article has individual identification means, in the event that a rental article is not returned in a given period, the customer who rented the item is identified by records of the system controller and their deposit or account can be charged or the customer billed for the rental article.
Although the present invention has been described with a control center at each kiosk that is in communication with a single system controller, which is the preferred embodiment to allow for commuting from one kiosk to another, it must be recognized that the functions of the system controller and a control center may be combined within a single device.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following drawings and detailed description of the preferred embodiments.